Dan Stevens: ‘Downton Abbey’ dreamboat Dan Stevens talks Big Bird and his Broadway debut British actor co-starring with Jessica Chastain savors NYC energy, says he doesn't fear being trapped in series' role of Crawley BY JACOB E. OSTERHOUT / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Matthew Crawley alert!

Sightings of the “Downton Abbey” heartthrob have become common in midtown since British actor Dan Stevens, who plays Crawley on the PBS television series, traded the bucolic English countryside for a buzzing Manhattan.

Stevens’ first order of business: Adjusting to the crush of traffic. Not on the streets, but after the show, outside the Walter Kerr Theatre, where he’s making his Broadway debut opposite “The Help” Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain in the drama “The Heiress.”

“In London, you get people waiting for you at the stage door, but not like here,” says Stevens, 30. “There just seems to be a general excitement about theater in New York. The audiences are famously the best. Cynical, but always engaged.”

For Stevens, who has acted on stage extensively in London, “The Heiress” is his second New York stopover. In 2005 he starred in the Shakespearean love story “As You Like It” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.


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Sheridan Smith hails "incredible" Matilda musical

Date Posted: 25/11/11

Matilda: The Musical has received rave reviews from a number of stars after it opened at the Cambridge theatre.

London theatre breaks favourite Sheridan Smith, who has previously appeared in Legally Blonde, took to her Twitter page to tell her followers that she was going to be in the audience for its first night.

"Good luck to all the incredible cast of @MatildaMusical for their official opening night tonight, I shall be whistling till my jaw aches! X" she said.

At the end of her evening she returned to her social networking page to praise the production.
"You all need to see @MatildaMusical I can not explain how incredible it is," she added.
Tim Minchin, an Australian comedian, wrote the music and lyrics for the show, and he has come in for plaudits after opening night.

Hugh Bonneville, star of Downton Abbey, said: "Tim Minchin is a genius and it's amazing that he won an award the other night."